Help me out here.... exactly WHY did the Scott Peterson story ever

[Ron Green]

get legs? As I understand it (and I know almost nothing about it except that it has occupied seemingly thousands of hours of tabloid- and then mainstream-media air), this guy killed his pregnant wife and their unborn baby. Now is that enough to warrant this coverage? Were either of them famous in some way or connected to someone famous? Or is this simply another O.J. deal without the celebrity angle? As I see this story come up on otherwise sober news sites, I just can't fathom the importance, other than pure entertainment and diversion. Can anyone here shed more light on this for me?

[LSdemocrat]

1. Something bad happened to a rich white woman

[Ron Green]

6. She was rich? I didn't know that. Was she well-connected, as they say,

socially?

[RoeBear]

20. She was white?

I thought she was Hispanic.

[bluedeminredstate]

2. White girl, pretty smile, pregnant

goes missing at Christmas. The perfect storm of media excess.

[donco6]

3. I've often wondered that myself, except:

they were white, and lived in Calif. Otherwise, it sounds like a story I hear every other week or so.

[evolvenow]

4. Now there will be a precedent, killing fetus= death penalty...

It is all very sad, and * agenda will use it to render untold horror on women's rights, choice of birth control, abortion, fill-in-the-blank...

[puddycat]

22. that has to be the reason that Fox news has highlighted it ad nauseum

Fox has overplayed this case from the beginning, and the only possible reason is that it plays into their uber-conservative agenda.

[clydefrand]

5. Ron_Green, I've been asking the same question over and over

of the reporters on CNN who have reported this story non-stop for nearly 2 years! As far as I can ascertain, they are/were just ordinary people in CA. The media has done the rest in making this the "trial of the century" as I just heard a few minutes ago.

So many ordinary people get murdered daily in this country, but who knows why they became faux high-profile? Good looks? I'm sure if they had been homely, poor people, they wouldn't get mentioned the first time.

[Ron Green]

11. Yeah, I mean, there are several murders of pregnant women every month, I'm

sure. Is it just the elements of entertainment that drive this story? If so, that's truly scary.

[Cory Laf]

7. Because they were rich n/t

[clydefrand]

13. He was a fertilizer salesman! Does that qualify for making him rich?

Must have been a damn successful one!

[enigami]

18. fertilizer

is expensive shit

[clydefrand]

29. Key recht! :-)

[evolvenow]

8. Domestic violence escalates when women are pregnant...

but you will not hear any of that mentioned in the news.

[thoughtanarchist]

9. read the code...

murdered pregnant woman...

this ruling had significance to reproduction rights...

creepers wanted to see Scott convicted twice. once for Laci and once for the unborn feetUs.

...but they can only kill him once can't they?

:eyes:

[babylonsister]

10. Laci had a pretty smile and was preggers.

Yeah, the injustice, but it goes on all the time; there are many cases similar to this around the country but this got the buzz. I don't get it either. There are so many other more important issues to concentrate on.

[noamnety]

12. it's about outlawing abortion

Murder with the inevitable death penalty for killing a fetus. Note the media talking points, they will never ever call it a fetus, it's always "Scott's son" or "Conner."

[sportndandy]

16. Nailed it.

This is definitely an abortion case.

[hinachan]

24. It's the abortion issue, stupid

They even used this against Kerry, saying he voted against the law that would "protect" people like Lacey...when it's actually a law about eroding abortion rights by calling a fetus a person.

When that fetus can cry and wake its parents at night, exist without an umbilical cord, and be written off on taxes, then and only then will I consider it a separate entity from the mother. Funny how the fetus-freaks have no pity for the babies deformed and killed by depleted uranium, isn't it?

[CatholicEdHead]

25. Indirectly yes,

the other part is just a simple diversion. Focus on that instead of all the other things happening in the world. But, the media wants us to be soley US-centric, not Global-centric with our news.

[SemperEadem]

31. Laci Madonna--the holy mother

the fetus is worthy of worship

[evolvenow]

14. * won't be happy until women are dying in back allies..

[Ron Green]

15. Media circus is nothing new, of course. Think of Floyd Collins trapped in

the cave, or Baby Jessica in the well. But those were suspenseful and unique events that addressed a need for narrative. This thing seems to be just a made-up enterainment. Although as I read some of the responses, I'm understanding the "killing the unborn" aspect, and the RW's need to make a big statement about that.

[enigami]

17. Because .........

It happened between the "Barreta" murder and Michel Jackson thing, the Media HAS to have something to deluge us with.

[Ron Green]

19. Yeah, that's the other half. I'm starting to see it now:

Half of it is the RW need to kill one who has killed the unborn -
Half of it is the media's need to keep the circus going.

And this story has all the necessary elements.

[no_hypocrisy]

21. It had all the elements of a movie on the Lifetime Channel on cable.

Beautiful, young woman, happy and pregnant. Even named the fetus because she couldn't wait to give birth. Handsome young husband and father-to-be but only on the surface. Cheated on the beautiful, young wife who was pregnant with his child -- several times, but especially with a massage therapist. You know there are massage therapists, and then there are "massage" therapists. So he lied to his wife, to his mistress/massage therapist.

And then the wife was missing, later found dead with disengaged fetus who was immediately given an identity by the media as a real baby. So murder times two lovely innocents.

It was more than the family outraged. It was the neighborhood. It was the community. It was the state. It was this country. Hey, the whole world was watching. Justice for Lacie and Connor. No matter what.

So, Scott theoretically had a motive. Inconvenient wife and impending fatherhood when he wanted out without paying alimony and child support. And the real reason for conviction: because all the world loved Lacie -- except for her husband. That's the reason he was convicted and today was handed the death penalty.

Another reason why Scott Peterson was caught in the legal snake pit was because of OJ. Yep. Do you think a California jury was going to let another murder defendant with a high public profile "walk" again? Because OJ was acquitted, I believe that Scott Peterson (or whoever would be the next high profile defendant) would be more likely convicted notwithstanding circumstantial evidence and no direct evidence linking him to the crime.

Maybe he did it. Maybe he didn't. But why subject him to capital punishment if it isn't a sure thing. I don't trust his attorney to run a successful appeal to overturn the conviction. He sucked at trial.

So, that's my theory of why Scott Peterson was convicted. Emotionalism trumped logic once again. American Justice: the oxymoron with emphasis on the last two syllables.

[troubleinwinter]

23. OK, don't shoot the messenger here...

I live in No. CA. Coupla weeks ago, a local reporter was asked that exact question- WHY has THIS story become 'national news'? The reporter said that it ordinarily would not have, if the body of a murdered pregnant woman had been found in a forest, or lake, or whatever.

But she was "missing", and all the volunteers were printing posters, etc., and searchers out. Just local coverage.

The reporters smelled a rat. Scott. They started yacking to one another. THEY, themselves found it fascinating, the longer the search went on, and they felt Scott was the deal. They spread the interest, basically by gossip amongst other reporters.

It snowballed and snowballed. For no particular reason but the reporters' fascination.

So there ya go. Only answer I got.

[KharmaTrain]

30. Well Put...It's Manufactured News

Yep, this story got legs thanks to the intense local coverage in the beginning and Peterson acting like such a jerk. He played cat & mouse with the media and they came down on this loser like a ton of bricks. But he was just a matter of convenience.

We live in the Post-OJ world where networks and tabloid shows have fulltime "legal" staffs...people whose job is to turn our legal system into entertainment. The ultimate accomplishment of that is "Court-TV". It's reality TV, draws lots of women and sells lots of Cealis and Pillsbury Cake Mixes.

If it wasn't Peterson, it'd be some other target...he just fit a great profile...the cheating husband! This reminds millions of divorced women of their "exes" or unhappily married women of their loser husbands and it was played to the hilt. Peterson had the bimbo blonde "girlfriend", the lies to cover it up and a lot of women could relate to it. Banal, simple, and the heads of the networks knew it would be both a circus and draw viewers. Legal system be damned, this is a TV show...also helped it took place right in LA.

Now we move on to the next Roman Circus. Probably will be Jacko and this one will attract the women thanks to the child abuse...the poor, helpless kids angle the network have used to already try and convict this dude. Then there's Robert Blake...a second-rate OJ, but he'll be still work.

Each day some gopher or intern is scowering the legal dockets to find that "golden trial"...murder, taboo sex, cheating, money (optional) and an easy target to make everyone hate. It doesn't mean justice, it means money.

The sad stories are the millions of people trapped in a legal system that all but destroys peoples lives...especially those that can't pay for a good laywer...and how this system only gets more obtrusive as court rooms now turn into TV studios.

[displacedtexan]

26. Not enough shark attacks/Christmas/Pregnant "Bride" Missing

All the necessary elements for high drama.

[atommom]

27. All of the above ... and it was also a "safe" thing to report on,

something that could be investigated and analyzed without incurring the wrath of the network heads or BushCo. Considering how many other women were murdered during the same timeframe, and how much other important news went unreported, it's impossible to justify the time and energy the media put into this story.

And as usual, The Onion has it nailed:

Peterson Given Lifetime Channel Sentence
REDWOOD CITY, CA—Scott Peterson, convicted in November of murdering his wife Laci and their unborn child, was issued a Lifetime Channel sentence during the penalty phase of his trial Monday. "Mr. Peterson's story shall be re-enacted in Lifetime movies and miniseries for a period of no less than 10 years," Judge Alfred Delucci told a packed courtroom Monday. "His story shall be remanded to Lifetime's custody until the network determines that public interest has waned sufficiently to allow airings on Oxygen." Delucci ordered that Peterson's team of lawyers be present for the casting.

(no link, since that's the whole piece)

[Cocoa]

28. because someone decided to make it a big story

and tons of people went along with it, TV providers and TV consumers alike.

I agree with your view, no inherent news value to justify the hype.

[SemperEadem]

32. because no one was going to be calling the news directors

or assignment desk editors telling them that if they covered the story, they would be denied access to future homicide investigations---and no news directors would be calling the reporters in off the street to tell them to choose between laying off the story or being laid off.

They elevated Laci to sainthood based upon being pregnant and her family allowed themselves to be pimped by the media to become willing participants in the media circus. They can be perpetual victims for decades to come, because they will always get the byline that they were Laci Peterson's _________ and the whole nation will automatically feel sorry for them.

Meanwhile, Laci is still dead.

Let's hear the media make a big stink about the woman and her 3 gorgeous children in St. Louis who were bound and killed execution style about a month ago by her boyfriend who took off in her SUV. Haven't heard about her? She's black, therefore you aren't going to.